Red's future less rosy without arena; owner just shrugs

Updated 10:17 am, Thursday, April 24, 2014

A pedestrian walks past Red's Java House April 22, 2014 on Pier 30 in San Francisco, Calif. Co-owner Tiffany Pisoni isn't concerned about the Warriors' decision not to move into the area, "Red's has survived for years without the Warriors," she said, "so, I think we'll be OK." less

A pedestrian walks past Red's Java House April 22, 2014 on Pier 30 in San Francisco, Calif. Co-owner Tiffany Pisoni isn't concerned about the Warriors' decision not to move into the area, "Red's has survived ... more

Most business owners who just saw an extra 2 million potential customers a year go sayonara might be, well, displeased.

But this is Red's Java House, where at 9:30 a.m. the sign out front still lists the special as a double cheeseburger and a beer.

It's the clapboard shack along the Embarcadero that Chronicle food critic Michael Bauer once called "a rite-of-passage experience that seemingly every native relishes."

Not only is it the joint that merited a special mention at the star-studded news conference the Golden State Warriors held in May 2012 to announce their plans to build an arena on the 13-acre pier where tiny Red's holds down the northwest corner; it's also the restaurant the team later said it would pay to move "lock, stock and beer barrel" - thank you, Matier and Ross - about 600 feet to another corner of Piers 30-32 to ease access to the arena.

That would be the arena that, as of this week, will no longer be built there.

But don't expect Red's co-owner Tiffany Pisoni to cry in her Anchor Steam about the Warriors' decision to build their showpiece 18,000-seat entertainment venue about a mile and half down the shoreline.